Forever Rangers
by intersects
Summary: A Forever Red re-telling. One Ranger risks the future to save the past. Kimberly/Tommy, Wes/Jen, other standard issue pairings, MMPR through PRWF! Story on hold.
1. Chapter 1: Force From The Future

**Author's Notes:** _Forever Rangers_ is my attempt at re-creating one of my favourite episodes from the later seasons, _Forever Red_ in Wild Force. I wasn't satisfied with just the half-hour of awesome mesh-ups we got in the episode, and this idea actually spawned off from letting my favourite Pink Rangers meet, which later turned into another idea of having them on Earth battling something at the same time, before it finally rested on this idea. I wanted to give it a darker edge and so tweaked the episode a little, but everything else stays intact. With that said, this story will mainly focus on Tommy/Kimberly and Wes/Jen, although the other standard issue canon pairings will be touched on. This story also acknowledges the first movie as canon, i.e. Ninjetti powers and Dulcea instead of ninja and Ninjor.  
**Author's Notes #2:** I must acknowledge KSuzie's amazing series, _The Coins_ for being a huge inspiration in all its awesomeness as a fan-written story. Thank you for inspiring me to carry on watching where I left off and making me appreciate the mythology of the show with your writing, KSuzie! :)  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own the entire Power Rangers franchise, Disney does now. I'd love for it to go back to its roots, though! Each chapter title will come from existing titles from the series.  
**Characters/Pairings:** From MMPR through PRWF. All canon pairings apply, but as a die-hard Tommy/Kimberly shipper, this story mostly focuses on them, as well as a fair bit with Wes/Jen.

C. 2009/disparate

* * *

**Forever Rangers**  
_Chapter One: Force From The Future_

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**Saturday, 5 October 2002****  
San Francisco, CA  
5:44 AM**

Being up before 8 on a Saturday has got to be a crime, the svelte brunette thought grumpily.

Yet here she was, bleary-eyed, groggy and chugging down the coffee like it was her lifeline. It wasn't that she wasn't a morning person – no, too many people have groaned at her perkiness early in the morning far too many times, but Kimberly Hart just wasn't feeling up for it on this particular day. It was a Saturday, dammit! It was the end of a grueling week at work and she had all the valid reasons to stay in, maybe watch some Saturday morning cartoons while she lazed in bed…

But for some inexplicable reason, she just couldn't. There was a nagging sense of the unknown hovering above her head, and most people would call it a sixth sense and go on with their days – but most people weren't former Rangers either. And even those who _are_ former Rangers haven't honed their latent talents either.

_Fuck you, Maligore's pit of stupid whatever,_ she thought and laughed a little about it. Not that she had really discussed the incident or the aftermath with anyone besides Jason anyway.

For him, it's the super strength and the ability to control raw kinetic energy. She knew that he enjoyed having these abilities; something quite reminiscent to the powers he yielded as both a Red and a Gold Ranger. Most people won't understand what the withdrawal of the power puts the user through, but Kimberly empathized completely.

Fittingly, for her, her amplified abilities to read people and situations were actually useful and she liked them, but sensing the future was something she wished she could turn off at the flick of the switch. She couldn't, obviously, but she was sure that something out of the ordinary was going to happen today and she couldn't help but feel uneasy about it.

If there's one thing she learned through the years, it was that there was no such thing as a coincidence.

**Monday, 18 April 3001  
Time Force: Headquarters  
2:19 PM**

She knew she wasn't supposed to do this.

She wasn't even supposed to retain her memories from the year 2001, but after some very thorough convincing and part of Time Force's nod to a job well done, the team was allowed to remember their involvements in the past and all of them even got big promotions within the ranks.

She should be happy. It was a huge coup and the world as she knew it is truly rid of all criminals. Yet, Jen Scotts found herself yearning for something more. It didn't help that she has to report to Alex everyday, and oh, how the tables have changed from a year ago. It used to be that she saw traces of Alex in Wes, used to be that she had to draw a clear line because Wes was nothing like the experienced officer that Alex is; nothing like the man she'd admired and cared for.

But now she looked at Alex and saw all the what-could-have-been's with _Wes_ and thinking about the entire situation just made her feel like punching a wall, because the both of them come from different times and places and it was just not the right order of things.

Looking at the screen in front of her, she let out a slow breath and shook her head. She'd been tapping into the feeds and monitoring Wes' life, day by day, whenever she can. And if what the history records were saying are correct, then it meant that Jen would no longer be allowed to do that – if only because the mission on the moon would kill more Rangers than ever before.

She looked around the room furtively. No one was around – she was a Captain of the Force now and with that came certain privacies. It also came with a set of responsibilities and the discretion to travel back in time to capture escaped mutants or to straighten out the timeline if there are any infractions.

She knew she wasn't supposed to do it, but logic flies out when the heart is involved, right? Licking her lips nervously, she called out the familiar call to activate her suit and toggled a series of commands on the switchboard, preparing herself for the takeoff as she walked over to her Time Flyer. When she came back, she was going to be looking at an altered future, no matter how minute or how major those changes are going to be. But she couldn't let Wes – and the other Rangers – die on a suicide mission like what they were going to.

And to stop that, she was going to need reinforcements. Thank god she paid attention during all those classes in training. She knew exactly who she was going to go to for help.

**Saturday, 5 October 2002  
****San Francisco, CA  
5:49 AM**

_Whoa. This can't be right._

In her time as a Ranger, she'd gone through some really, really weird things. But this? This definitely belongs to the top half of the list. A few moments ago, the earth had started shaking and Kimberly had passed it off like an earthquake; even going as far as to pass off her foreboding feelings for that. But then she looked outside the window and felt her eyes widen.

A flying machine of some sort has ripped open the sky like a portal landed outside her house. In her backyard, to be exact. Her jaw dropped open.

"What the hell?" she muttered under her breath and rushed to the back door, twisting the doorknob and stared at the pink-clad Ranger. With an incredulous look on her face, Kimberly watched as the Ranger power down and step towards her.

"Kimberly Hart?"

"Um…" Kimberly involuntarily took a step back, keeping a clear distance between them. "I guess that depends on who's asking?"

"My name is Jen Scotts, and I'm from the year 3001 – "

"You're kidding," she breathed out, interrupting mid-speech.

"I'm not. I know it may be a little hard to explain but I need your help." Jen was banking on the fact that since Kimberly was one of the first Earth Rangers documented, she'd be able to digest all the time traveling gizmos quicker than when she'd first tried to explain it to Alex. She shook that memory as fast as it attacked and drew a deep breath.

Kimberly furrowed her brows. "Okay, I get all of that. But I don't know what kind of help you're looking for, since I don't exactly have morphing powers anymore."

Just as Jen was going to explain the situation to her, the Time Flyer was sent back through the portal and Kimberly gaped at the sight of it disappearing, her attention diverted for the time being.

"What _was_ that thing?"

"That was my Time Flyer… And one-fifth of the Time Force Megazord," she divulged, and Kimberly took another look at the disappearing portal.

"That is _awesome_," she said in amazement and daze before laughing, and Jen felt like the peal of laughter was contagious as she cracked a smile of her own.

"Why don't we come in first, I don't want the neighbors to call the police or anything," Kimberly said, motioning for them to get inside the house as she took a backward step. Jen followed behind her into the house, noting the infrastructure and interior design, although her brows were knitted with a frown as the gravity of the situation resided deep in her thoughts.

"You look really worried," Kim commented, covering up the fact that she was sensing waves of mild distress from Jen. _Good to know human emotions aren't phased out a thousand years from now!_ She cracked a smile awaiting the answer from the uniformed woman.

"That's actually what I came to you about," she told her, finally looking Kimberly straight in the eye. Kim was biting her bottom lip without even realizing she was doing it. "The Machine Empire is digging up Lord Zedd's old zord, Serpentera, on the moon."

Kim frowned. "I thought the Zeo Rangers eliminated the Machine Empire. Or sent them back. Whatever they did."

The truth was, she had been keeping track of the Rangers even after she went to Florida, and even with all the horrible mistakes she'd made while she was a naïve, stupid teenager, she still had a soft spot for the past, and especially for the legacy. She was many things in her life, but having been an ex-Ranger, all of these things paled in much comparison. Pan-Global gold medalist, Olympics silver individual medalist, USC graduate, elementary school teacher, part-time coach at the gymnasium, San Francisco Reserve Police Officer… the list went on, and she knew on some level that in a way, she was overcompensating with keeping busy with her life.

"The Zeo Rangers only destroyed the leaders. Some of the generals managed to escape, and if my calculations are correct, they're on the moon right now digging up Lord Zedd's old Zord, preparing to invade Earth."

"And you think I'm able to help you… how?" Kim asked, something at the back of her mind jumping excitedly about the prospects of being able to help again in the Rangering world.

"History records that ten Red Rangers are going to band together with the intent of going to the moon to stop the Machine Empire from acquiring Serpentera, but most of them are going to lose their lives doing so. I need to stop that from happening, and I think you're one of the Pink Rangers who can help me." Jen said, while she fiddled with her chrono morpher, a nervous tick if any.

"But like I said, I don't have morphing powers anymore –" she started to talk, feeling a little letdown that maybe she wasn't going to be able to help when she realized something else with a start. "Wait. Ten Red Rangers? That'll make… from the beginning? All of them?"

"Almost all of them. Only three survived. The Space, Lightspeed and the Quantum Rangers."

With the omission of the titles of the men she'd known were on the mission too, Kimberly was at a loss of words. _Please, let her be right and that I'd be able to help, with or without powers. Jason, Rocky… Tommy._

It was never an easy thing thinking about Tommy. They'd cared deeply for and loved each other while in high school and serving as Zordon's Rangers, but when Kimberly left to pursue her dream in competitive gymnastics, the distance was too much for her to handle. Breaking up with him over a letter was not her finest hour, as with lying in that letter about meeting a new guy, but she was slightly comforted by the fact that he was free to pursue a relationship that wasn't unfair to him.

After the incident on Muiranthias, Kimberly wanted to make amends with him. There wasn't a doubt that she still cared a lot for Tommy, but when she saw Kat in his arms, she could see that he was happy with a teammate that was there for him. To her, that was all that mattered; that he was happy. And even if she did want to talk, he was less than pleased at the prospect and had brushed her off at her attempts to, and Kimberly left Angel Grove again, this time a little more broken-hearted than before.

"They're meeting at NASADA's spaceport in less than 12 hours. We'll need to gather the other Pink Rangers here on Earth and join the Red Rangers before they board the Astro Megaship," Jen interrupted her memory trip back to her past and Kim took a deep breath, focusing her thoughts on the mission ahead.

"What about the powers? I know I can't last a fight on the moon like this." Inwardly, she felt like she'd asked this question a million times in the span of ten minutes.

"I don't know much about the details, but when the Zordon Wave occurred, it restored the power in your first power coin," the other woman told her, and Kim was surprised at the revelation. Her Pterodactyl power coin was active? Zordon had given her copies of both the coins she'd held, as mementos right before she left for Florida, and she'd always known that she could morph into the Crane Ninjetti, but never had she thought that a full morph was possible.

Of course, it came at a price… Zordon's untimely demise had been the straw on the proverbial camel's back that convinced Kimberly to move back to the west coast and closer to her friends. The wise sage must have seen this coming. Kimberly suppressed a sob that was threatening to bubble out from her throat as she took a deep breath, and gave Jen a firm nod.

"Then let's get to work. We don't have much time now. I know someone who can get us to all the other Pink Rangers… Except I don't think he's going to be too happy being woken up so early in the morning," she grimaced as she picked the phone up.

**Saturday, 5 October 2002  
San Francisco, CA  
5:58 AM**

"Yes… Uh huh. It's six in the morning, I know… I need your help. Actually, make that, a lot of people need your help."

"_That'd better be a stupendous discernment you're voicing out, Kimberly. What kind of assistance do you need?_" The former Blue Ranger growled, and Kim had to stop herself from giggling, despite the situation.

Since the dissolution of his relationship to Cestria, Billy had moved back to Earth and had been making a profit out of his inventions – especially coupled with the advanced technology that he had learned on Aquitar. He mostly kept to himself now, finding that he barely connected with anybody who wasn't a former Ranger. Kimberly was one of the few people he still kept in contact with.

Although he wouldn't tell her, Billy was upset that he hadn't been able to help her and Jason with their developing abilities from Muiranthias. Holing himself up and making new inventions and breakthroughs in science had been his way of coping with his disappointment in not being able to help his dear friends, but the hard truth was that he wasn't equipped with enough knowledge of all the power in all the worlds to do so.

"It's kind of complicated to explain over the phone. Do you think you can work your magic and get here ASAP?"

Billy sighed, rubbing his eyes and grabbing for his shirt. "_Alright. I'll be arriving in approximately five minutes._"

"I love you. You're a saint. And the best. Did I mention I love you?"

"_Yeah, yeah._"

At Jen's questioning gaze but being too polite to ask, Kim put the phone back to its cradle and shot her a small smile. "That's Billy. He's our resident brain. Technical advisor, super genius, all of that. He developed the Turbo powers, actually," she said, sounding proud at her friend's achievement.

"The Blue Ranger who later went to Aquitar?" she asked, and Kimberly nodded while an idea formed in her head and her eyes lit up.

"I bet he can coordinate this Serpentera mission from NASADA! That'll give us an edge, right? I mean, from what was supposed to happen…" _Which I'm not going to allow happen. Not if I have any say in it._

"That's a great idea," Jen replied, her own voice growing in excitement. She hadn't even thought of asking anybody but the Pink Rangers before. She was going to change history. Wes wasn't going to die today.

"Jen? Can I just ask something?" She didn't need her abilities to figure out that Jen seemed much happier and less solemn than she'd been when she first arrived, and curiosity got the better of her.

"Go ahead."

"I thought history shouldn't be tampered with. I mean, if it's _recorded_ in the future that they… sacrifice their lives for Earth, and by no means do I want that to happen, but it happened, right? I mean, if you haven't come back to do this?" Jen nodded, averting her gaze. "So what I want to know is… Why?"

Briefly she contemplated giving Kimberly the company line. Something about it being the right thing to do, that the Rangers are too invaluable to be killed like this, but there was something about Earth's first Pink Ranger that made Jen stop herself from doing that.

"The Red Time Force Ranger," she confessed in a quiet voice.

"What's his name?" Kimberly pressed on, but not in an ungentle manner.

"Wes. He's from this time, and last year my team and I came here to capture a mutant. Wes had to activate the chrono morphers so that we can use them to morph into Rangers." She lifted her arm slightly so that Kim could see the morpher strapped tightly to her wrist. "He matched the DNA signatures left by the previous Red Ranger, from my time."

She figured out how the pieces in the puzzles fit. "And you have feelings for Wes."

"I – " she paused, feeling a little awkward that she was divulging so much in an almost complete stranger, but as weird as it was, she didn't _mind_ so much that the woman sitting opposite her knew about her feelings for Wes. "I do."

Having managed to connect the dots and came to her own conclusion that they had been torn apart by space and time and the regulations, and Jen seemed like a woman who had to abide by the rules and do the right thing, except until now, it seemed like the perfect storybook romance tale but in reality, Kim could feel the faint longing from Jen and in that instant, her heart went out to the other Pink Ranger.

However, before she could say or do anything, Billy's RADBUG had landed in her backyard and she stood up; Jen doing the same. With all the modifications Billy had made to the transport vehicle, it was now looking sleek with a new blue paint job. In other words, it was very Billy. The aforementioned scientist stepped out of the car and raised his fist to knock on the door, but Kim beat him to the punch and opened it first.

"Oh, I'm so glad to see you," she proceeded to give him a big bear hug and he raised his brows, but allowing her to do so before pulling away and looked at her.

"Actually, I'm famished. Do you have any replenishments fit for the most important meal of the day?"

Being cut off from the rest of the world had caused Billy to revert back to his preferred speech pattern, and he found that the Aquitians even understood him better when he didn't have to dumb down his thoughts so that his friends back on Earth could understand him. When he came back, he was pleasantly surprised but not shocked to see that the college-educated friends of his could now understand him perfectly fine, unlike when they were back in high school and they'd needed a conduit in the form of Trini.

"I've got some cereal and milk, I'll get them for you in a sec. This is Billy, Jen," she introduced them to each other, "And Billy, this is Jen. She's from the year 3001. I'll let her fill you in on what the emergency is."

"The last surviving generals of the Machine Empire…"

* * *

**Saturday, 5 October 2002  
The Moon  
Unknown time**

The dig had been going on for hours, days; the machines couldn't tell but at long last the location of the great zord that had been left abandoned on the rough crevices of the moon has been uncovered.

"We finally found it!" General Venjix exclaimed, looking at the magnificent outer body of the Serpentera. It had been its plan to avenge King Mondo after he was eliminated, and it knew it could destroy and conquer Earth just like his old King would have wanted. "Guards, keep digging! Zedd was a fool to leave this buried here. His loss, our gain!"

From a cliff plateau, a hooded man stayed crouching, monitoring the dig site with his binoculars, which was recording all that he was seeing at the same time, transmitting to an off-site uplink. Andros let his arm fall to his side as he removed the hood, his brows knitted together into a frown. "It's worse than I thought. They'd almost finished digging it out!"

Standing up, the Red Space Ranger swiveled on his heel, eager to transmit the information he'd just obtained to someone he knew could coordinate a mission to stop a tragedy from happening. His foot caught a few loose rocks, sending them tumbling down the hill, and he looked on in alarm before turning back, putting his hood on and running away from the epicenter of the digging.

As he ran, his hood fell off his head. Turning around, it was to his horror that two of the generals were coming after him on horses. He wasn't going to be able to outrun them, but he had to get nearer to the surface to activate his Galaxy Glider…

"Galaxy Glider, hang ten!"

With a burst of energy, he morphed into his familiar suit with a flip and landed on his Glider, whisking him back to the safety of his adoptive home. He had hoped this day wouldn't come this soon, but it looked like General Venjix had left them with no other choice. The willing Red Rangers would have to come together and put in a valiant attempt to save the world, again.


	2. Chapter 2: Built For Speed

**Notes:** My first ever PR story, _World Spins Madly On_, was completed and its sequel posted, so I'd love it if you could read it and tell me what you think, if you like my writing! :) Also, if you're a Amy Jo Johnson/Kimberly fan, the second season of her show _Flashpoint_ is showing on CBS/CTV every Friday, and it's really, really great television, so you'll really enjoy it if you watch it. Otherwise... The next part of _Forever Rangers_, please enjoy!  
**Disclaimer: **Power Rangers and its entire franchise belong to Disney now.

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**Forever Rangers  
**_Chapter Two: Built For Speed

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_

**Saturday, 5 October 2002  
San Francisco, CA  
6:12 AM**

"So, you can hack into systems to get us what we want?"

The smell of freshly brewed coffee permeated through the house, although to the three occupants currently, the lure of food wasn't as strong as the information that had just been disseminated by the Ranger from the future.

Billy shot a quick look at Kimberly. "I don't '_hack into systems_'."

He was about to turn his head away to flash her a smile, giving her a taste of his new-found dry humor when he saw her face fall, the lines on her forehead creasing ever-so-slightly as she muttered a downcast 'Oh', and she cast a worried look at Jen who was looking at the exchange with a poker face on.

"What I mean to say is," he added quickly, immediately, so that she didn't really think that he was that cold to her, "Hack is such a derogatory word. I _have_ on one occasion reverse-engineered the databases to obtain, ah, information for myself. This wouldn't pose as a setback."

Billy didn't like the fact that the previous Rangers were still on call for missions, since there was the Wild Force team assembled in Turtle Cove. If he'd just admit it to himself though, mostly what he didn't like was the fact that he wasn't kept in the know for this. All the older Rangers that were friends with him at some point or another covet his technical expertise and he knew that he'd be an asset at point, busying himself in the background as all his other friends charged out and be heroes, while he faded away.

Kim actually scowled at him, a quick retort at the tip of her tongue when Jen had cut in quickly, and Kim just kept quiet. There was a time for games and fun, and it wasn't now. Even as she tried to push away the dismaying thoughts that if the worst situation would happen, a lot _more_ people would die on the moon and not just the Red Rangers, these thoughts kept surfacing in her head and only amplified with Jen's own worry. If only she could control how far and how clear she could see the future, she thought wryly, then maybe there wouldn't be so much cause for concern if she had all the answers.

"The locations, all within the hour?"

For Jen, there wasn't anything wrong for the old friends to play word games with each other, and she hadn't meant to lose her patience, but they were losing time by the minute and the one thing they needed was time, and they needed it preciously. Time to find the other Rangers, time to set up an elaborate plan of attack and not go in blind on the moon _and_ time to intercept their male counterparts before they board the Astro Megaship. Technology hadn't advanced fast enough for the humans on Earth to travel to space and the other solar systems yet, and she was willing to bet that Billy couldn't send them up to the moon independently, even at his best efforts.

Billy nodded. "Affirmative. I just need the equipment in my laboratory to achieve our target."

"Then we'd better go," Kimberly stood up, tugging at her pajamas a little uncomfortably while she did so. "But give me a sec," and with a slight wince she continued. "Can't save the world in these clothes, can I?"

**Saturday, 5 October 2002  
Reefside, CA  
8:02 AM**

If Tommy Oliver could convince himself enough, then this statement would be true: Life couldn't be greater than now.

He'd missed the west coast, having been out in Massachusetts for college in the years in between. Sure, Reefside wasn't Angel Grove, but it was still California and that boded some sense of familiarity. He'd spent some of his most formative years in the little town that could, and missed the feeling of warm sun on his skin, but most of all he missed the days from before where he could actually take on the world and say it like he meant it.

At fifteen years old, it had been the worst thing ever to be transplanted from his home to a new place. He had kicked up a fuss over moving, even saying scathing things about his parents, like how they didn't really care for him because he was not their real son, and that was why they were uprooting his life and making everything hellish for him. The Olivers were extremely and rudely shocked at his words, but defiantly he'd chosen not to respond to them afterwards, just like a petulant child.

Still, even with all the silent tantrums he threw, nothing could stop the fact that he was going to move to the strange place called Angel Grove where stupid building-sized monsters destroyed everything in sight and a group of superheroes were situated in that city. Some speculated that those multi-colored beings were aliens, in his old school, and that had been the general consensus of it. Why his parents wanted to move there, he had no idea. The first day of school was a blur of administration procedures. The people seemed nice and all, but he hadn't really taken the step forward to make friends or even look interested in doing that. The second day brought a change: There was an opening for a martial arts competition at the juice bar, and he'd been secretly thrilled, although still sulky at home. No one at his old school was ever interested in martial arts, and it was partly because of that that he had become a loner, choosing to isolate himself from the other kids who were getting more interested in sports, or girls.

It thrilled him to no end that his opponent had been a formidable one. No one else had given him a challenge like that before, and the tied score brought out his competitive side. And he thought, maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't have to be so alone in his passion for the martial arts in Angel Grove, and suddenly being moved here hadn't been such a bad thing afterall.

The introduction to the Rangering world was not at all a normal one. Rita needed an evil Ranger, and Tommy was it. To this day, he still marveled the fact that Jason and the team had given him the chance to join them, instead of ostracizing him or blaming him for all the damages he'd caused to them. Before he knew it, time flew past and it had been years of adventures and defending the planet. Faces changed, colours shifted, and hearts broken, but Tommy's sense of justice had always been there.

It was a long period of withdrawal after passing his powers over to T.J. Tommy would wake up in the middle of the night with spurts of energy, raring to take on the world when he would realize that the world no longer needed his services in uniform. His Zeonizer was locked up in his basement now with all the other Rangers memorabilia, but before it was kept in storage, he'd fiddle with it sometimes and morph with his crystal, if only for the excitement to sustain his uneasiness. As far as he knew, no one else had this big a reaction, and he speculated that it was his possession of the evil green power coin for that short period of time that had heightened his sense for the Power. The urges to do something more gnawed at him, never stopping, and for a while after high school he diverted all his attention to racecars, but when the opportunity knocked for him to give college a try, he'd accepted it.

Being on the fast track to obtaining a doctorate was a dream in theory, but it was a nightmare when it came to actually doing it. Tommy had been an okay student in high school, but his forgetful nature made it hard for him to memorize facts and names and everything in between. Adding on to the fact that Katherine had unceremoniously dumped him a few weeks into the first semester – it was his fault too, he admitted ruefully. He couldn't expect her not to be mad, when he hadn't told her about MIT or his plans. Kat had told him that she thought their relationship was too one-sided for her liking, and it was unfair to her. More underhanded sniping from both sides had revealed some leftover jealousy over his ex-girlfriend, and while he had denied the fact that he still pined for her vehemently, the blonde girl had told him to pick up the slack or break things off. When he didn't give her an answer, she walked away and the last time he had seen her was then.

He had tried to love Katherine, Tommy thought, he really did, but in the end it just wasn't meant to be, just like how his other long-term relationship was. He brushed away thoughts of that one, not wanting to dredge up old memories that only served to make him sad first, angry later.

Partnering up with Anton Mercer was also a giant step forward in his career and he was grateful for all the opportunities he had to develop and study dinosaurs and merging technology with them. Dinosaurs had been a big part of his life, even more so than racecars. He'd always been in awe of the original Dinozords and the way they worked so seamlessly. And then, of course there was that thing about riding a pile of dinosaur bones on Phaedos…

It had been a long way since, but it was almost symbolic, like a new start to his life; a full circle to come back to. Even then, he was unwilling to cut off the ties to his old life – it was those things that made him the man he was today. When the phone call came from Andros, he knew what he had to do. Earth needed a Ranger to assemble a team to protect it, and he had always been a defender. It was time to get back into action.

**Saturday, 5 October 2002  
Mariner Bay, California & Angel Grove, California  
9:23 AM**

"You know I wouldn't say no, Jen."

The Lightspeed Ranger had agreed immediately after hearing of what the situation was and mumbled something about how it was _just_ like Carter to do something like that without telling the rest of them first. She was thrilled, however, to see Jen again. When she had last been called into action, the two Rangers had struck up an immediate connection and she was sad to know that Jen was going back to the future eventually, but the brief time they spent after destroying Vypra had been enjoyable and memorable, and a friendship had been struck.

Dana was the third Ranger they'd managed to get to. Cassie Chan had given them the nod too, but she needed some time to re-schedule her meetings for the day before she could meet them at Billy's lab. In the process of their meeting, she also revealed that she had two morphers – she sheepishly admitted that she'd playfully tried to morph with her Turbo powers a few months ago and was shocked that it worked, since it was her impression that the Turbo powers had been destroyed, and was the entire point of them chasing Divatox through the galaxies and gained their new powers from Andros' morphers.

With an extra power source at hand, the three girls and Billy had brainstormed on whom to pull in. Ashley was ruled out almost immediately; she was a little over four months pregnant and even though Kim and Billy were assuredly certain that the morphing grid would protect the baby if she morphed, Cassie had put her foot down on recruiting her best friend for the dangerous mission.

Much to Kim and Billy's regrets, they weren't able to lock in onto Trini's location. Kim mused wistfully that Trini would look good in pink and Billy had agreed, but a little more bashfully. Aisha and Tanya's names were tossed up next, but a quick phone call to Aisha in Africa proved to be a disappointment when she declined, saying that she had her family to think about and it had been a long while since she had been Rangering. Kim knew she couldn't force her other best friend to do this, and with profuse apologies Aisha had wished them luck.

They were going to call Tanya when Cassie had a brainwave.

"I think I know who exactly could take this," she gestured to her morpher excitedly. With the others urging her to continue, she started setting up her telephone and plugging in something Billy recognized as a data transmitter from KO-35.

"Karone can help us with this, I'm sure of it. She became the Galaxy Pink Ranger when Kendrix…" she shifted a little uncomfortably, still feeling responsible for the other woman's outcome even though she received communications from Terra Venture that Kendrix had turned out well and good after they'd fulfilled their mission's destiny. "Well, I'm sure Karone will be able to do this. It's kind of like poetic justice, you know?"

"Because when she was Astronema, she attacked the Space Rangers… I see." Kim gave her an approving nod. Moments later, Karone had teleported from her home planet where she was on an extended stay; she'd become somewhat of a double citizen with traveling between Earth and the Karova system ever since Andros settled down with Ashley on Earth, and she didn't want to be without her brother for a long period of time, not having lost so much time when they were younger.

True enough, like Cassie had said, Karone acceded to the request immediately. The memories of being Astronema still haunted her in the still of the night sometimes, and even though her stint as one of the Galaxy Rangers had proven to her that she wasn't evil by nature, she still wanted more chances to atone for all that she had done before. Picking up Cassie's Astro Morpher was a mini-epiphany for her, as she remembered both the times when the Rangers were going to make her an honorary Ranger, and when she had transformed herself into Ashley and morphed into the Yellow Ranger. If it weren't so dangerous, Karone would have been a whole lot more delighted and amused about this.

Regrettably, Billy had been unable to link up with Terra Venture, which meant that they wouldn't be able to get Kendrix until after they got on the Astro Megaship, if all went according to plan. With five Pink Rangers at hand, there was only one left to contact, and Kim had faltered a little as the RADBUG landed near a lovely looking house in London.

**Saturday, 5 October 2002  
London, England  
5:52 PM (local time)**

Her companions filed out of the car as she stared wistfully at the door to the house. Despite efforts to keep the friendship afloat, tension was always high between the two girls whenever they met. After the debacle in Muiranthias, she kept her distance away from her successor, although the two of them spoke briefly. Kat seemed to genuinely care for Tommy, and Kim wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that then. Through the grapevine Kim had heard that part of the reason why Tommy and Kat had broken up was because of _her_. She was very secretly a little thrilled, although she was a lot more concerned that her presence had caused a rift in their relationship. A telephone call a couple of years ago had only served to strain the friendship even more when Kat had brought up the relationship and Kimberly let slip the truth about the letter, and the phone conversation was ended on a bad note.

"Kim?" She was yanked away from the thoughts from the past when Billy's voice rang in her ear; Jen, Dana, Karone and himself standing outside of the car while she still remained seated. Taking a deep breath, she pushed all her thoughts away and hopped out of the car, fiddling with the bracelet on her hand without realizing she was doing that, walking briskly ahead and wanting to get it over and done with. On a second thought she swiveled on her heel and faced the others.

"Can I talk to her alone? I don't think it's a good idea to go in there as a group and mob her with the mission," she explained. Inwardly she wanted to gauge Kat's reactions upon seeing her and for the mission on hand. She wasn't sure if her presence would cause the other woman to refuse flat-out or to agree, but she was willing to give a try at reasoning with her.

The other Rangers had no problem with the arrangement, although Billy eyed her with concealed curiosity. He had been on Aquitar when all of the drama between Tommy, Kimberly and Katherine had transpired, but word traveled fast through the system between old friends whether any of them liked it or not. He had known Kimberly since they were little kids and all the things Kim had given up for Tommy bothered him. She had confided in him a few months after he came back from Aquitar about everything that went on while he was gone, and to himself he thought that she had been too kind to Tommy (and indeed, Katherine) at the expense of herself. As it was, though, it wasn't his place to comment on her actions, and besides, it was all in the past.

Having gathered their consent, Kim took a deep breath and walked up the steps towards the patio. She had no idea how this was going to turn out, but she crossed her fingers. Raising her hand and balling it up into a fist, she hesitated for a moment before knocking on the door.

It swung open, and the gorgeous blonde woman's eyes widened and even involuntarily took a surprised step back, not expecting Kim's appearance on her doorsteps.

"Kimberly! What are you doing here?"

Drawing a deep breath, Kim reached out for the power within her and assessed the situation. There weren't any traces of hostility and she breathed a little easier, and giving Katherine a warm smile, she gestured over to the RADBUG and its passengers.

"It's kind of complicated, but I need your help."

"Help? What kind of help?" she asked, while furrowing her brows thinking about how weird the day was shaping up to be. Kimberly was honestly the last person she'd expect to find on her doorsteps asking for help. In truth, she'd expected the shorter girl to dislike her for a multitude of things, like stealing her power coin while she was under Rita's evil spell, or for being Tommy's girlfriend after Kim had broken up with him. Deep down, though, she knew that Kim was a much more gracious person than that, which made her ashamed of her own thoughts while she was dating Tommy.

It wasn't that Katherine harbored a strong sense of resentment for Kimberly. She respected the other woman, and had gone out of her way to help her out of being fearful of gymnastics after the fall that she had inadvertently caused, but with Tommy, it was like Kimberly was the biggest elephant in the room that he couldn't get over. Katherine had tried so hard to make Tommy reach a stage of closure, but her efforts were futile. A long-distance relationship was hard to maintain, but she had wanted to try it with him when she was accepted into The Royal Ballet in London. It was her plan to perform there for a year before she applied to college and get her degree, by the end of which she'd continue dancing with the company.

Maybe it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, or maybe it wasn't, but Tommy's indignity that long-distance relationships never worked definitely panned out that way. It was nine months since her acceptance, and she had flown back and forth the continents, trying her best to keep the relationship afloat. The last three months was crucial for her as she debated staying on with the company instead of furthering her education like she had planned for. When she called Tommy to ask him for his advice, he'd nonchalantly told her about his first few weeks in MIT.

That had been the final straw. She was appalled that she wasn't informed of his big decision at all, and knew that it was being extremely unfair to her. Having promptly told him that, and as the argument went on, things started getting blown out of proportions and things were said and regretted later.

On her trip down memory lane, Katherine had wandered off in her mind, completely missing Kim explaining what she wanted her help for.

"…and we're trying to stop them from killing themselves."

Katherine blinked at her. "Killed? What? Who?"

"You haven't been listening to me, have you," Kim said, not even presenting it as a question as she allowed a crack of a smile on her face, and Katherine averted her gaze bashfully. Patiently, Kimberly repeated what she had just said. When the facts were laid out in front of her to see, Katherine bit her lip and thought about it.

She didn't really keep in touch with a lot of people from her past. Tanya most frequently and the other Zeo-turned-Turbo Rangers a few months in between, but beyond that she hadn't bothered to follow up on the other teams. When the power transfer had taken, she had secretly thought she was the only one genuinely happy about it. She hadn't been a Ranger for a very long time, all things considered, and she was at a crossroads at what she wanted to do with her life, but being a Ranger or even being a part of the Ranger community definitely wasn't in the plans.

She turned around, sensing Kim's anticipation of her answer. On the one hand, she didn't really want to jump back into action. Her boyfriend of nearly three years had no idea of her Rangering past, and she intended on keeping it that way. Callum was the perfect boyfriend, always attentive to her and the two had connected on a level her and Tommy never could have had, and she truly loved him. But some secrets were meant to be kept and Kat wanted to keep her past locked up.

On the other hand, those were her friends… Asking her for her help; help that she knew she had the capacity to give. If her exclusion was a flaw that caused the mission to fail, she wasn't willing to bear the burden of blaming herself and feeling the guilt. Being a Ranger had shaped her into who she was today…

"Alright," she agreed after a moment, wondering again if she was doing the right thing for herself. When she saw Kimberly's face etched with visible relief, Kat nodded numbly, thinking, _yes, this is the right thing to do_.

* * *

**Saturday, 5 October 2002  
Angel Grove, CA  
3:52 PM**

Karone surveyed the scene in front of her. Within hours, Kimberly and Jen had gathered not just a handful, but four more experienced Rangers and a technical advisor and roped them into this fight. Maybe on hindsight, they would recognize this as selfish beyond reason and she would think about it as such too, but at the very moment she could not really see beyond saving their red counterparts. She'd just settled into the semi-quiet life, and she wasn't about to let Andros live with the nightmares of watching everyone around him perish, again.

"Zords. Do we need them? Do we _have_ them?" Cassie asked a little abruptly, looking at the women and lone man around the table. The Pink Rangers and Billy were brainstorming on the best plans to take the Machine Empire down, having all been briefed about Serpentera and recognizing its potential of being Earth's downfall.

Serpentera was massively enormous. If Billy could manage to shift their zords on the moon – if they were even functional – it could make up maybe half of Serpentera's size. It was disheartening, although Kim reminded them that the zord required a great amount of fuel and that it wouldn't be as big as a problem they were all thinking it was.

Inwardly, she'd also thought that being small had its advantage, but didn't say that out loud. As the time passed faster than she'd ever known it to be, tensions were getting a little high. The return trip from London back to Billy's lab was uncomfortable, to say the least, since so many of them were squeezed into the RADBUG. It was then decided that they would drive down to NASADA the old-fashioned way, which meant they had to hurry about before they missed their window of opportunity.

The Pink Rangers also made the conscious effort not to inform the Red Rangers that they were going to turn up, Katherine being the one to make the observation that if the male counterparts wanted their help, they would have asked for it.

"If we can destroy what's left of the Machine Empire, we wouldn't have to fight Serpentera," Dana pointed out. Murmurs of agreement were sounded and a few nods exchanged, before they fell into a silence again.

Jen sighed a little. It had been a long day and her body clock was all whacked up, and fatigue was catching up on her. Maybe she should have cut the time a little less closely. Or maybe someone was going to come back from the future and demand that she returned. She'd put up a fight against it if that happened, but at the moment she just didn't want to think about anything but getting all of them back safely.

"I just want to thank all of you for doing this. If you want to pull out of this mission, you should say something… It's a dangerous one and we can't force you to go," she told the others, a little tiredly. Kim looked at her with concern, but didn't say anything.

Even though Jen didn't say it out, Kat knew that it was now or never to back out. Briefly she considered the option again, and then with a deep breath decided against it. She'd made a commitment to Kim and to the rest of her fellow Pink Rangers, and she was going to keep it. She was going to spend a lot of time explaining things to Callum, although she had no idea where to start. He'd seen the RADBUG, and he'd heard the abridged version of what was happening, but it wasn't even near the whole truth.

"I think I speak for everyone here…" she looked around at the other women around the table. "We made a choice to follow you back here, and we choose to help, and we choose to stay. You didn't force us," she spoke carefully, keeping her eye on Kim as she did so. Kim shot an appreciative look at her, maintaining eye contact before she checked her watch for the time. The trip from Billy's lab to NASADA was going to take just under half an hour, so if they didn't want to miss the Astro Megaship navigating off, they'd have to set off right about now.

"I think it's time."


	3. Chapter 3: Until Sunset

**Author's Notes:** Finally! I'm sorry for the long wait, guys, but school was really bumming me out. I don't believe I've said this before though, but this will be a five-part story, and depending on the feedback, I might continue the story (possibly filling in from between the end of _Forever Red_ to the start of _Dino Thunder_) - but we'll see how that goes. Again, if you enjoy my writing, I'll really appreciate if you take the time to read my other PR fic as well (_World Spins Madly On_, a four-parter and its sequel, _Draw Down The Stars_) because I've got crazy, big, and hopefully awesome plans for that story too. Anyway, enough babbling, here's the next chapter of _Forever Rangers_!  
**Disclaimer:** Power Rangers and its entire franchise belong to Disney now.

* * *

**Forever Rangers  
**_Chapter Three: Until Sunset_

* * *

**Saturday, 5 ****October 2002  
Silver Hills, CA  
6:02 AM**

"We need a new car."

Eric Myers watched in amusement as his friend slammed the heel of his hand on the steering wheel, frustration clearly etched on his face.

"You've been saying that since the day we were assigned to it."

"Yes, and in all that time we've wasted hours trying to get this rusty junk bucket to start," he all but growled and gave up on trying to start the car for the moment as he leaned back, against the headrest. Eric hid the smile as he reached over to twist the key, and much to Wes' annoyance, the engine purred to life.

"Cars are like women. You just need to know how to steer them," Eric said nonchalantly, adjusting his shades as Wes rolled his eyes and stepped down on the pedal. Silver Hills was relatively quiet, and the Silver Guardians were thankful for that. Sure, it wasn't exciting, but the peace was appreciated after the mutants had torn the city apart just a year ago.

"Just like you know how to 'steer' Taylor. _Right_."

Eric didn't miss the tinged sarcasm. He suppressed a smile at the mention of the Yellow Wild Force Ranger. Not that he had willingly discussed his growing affection for Taylor with Wes. He'd put himself through the grinder before he would do that, but there was a mutual understanding between them. That Eric cared deeply for Taylor, more than any other girl in his life was a big indicator that he was scared, frankly. They had a push-pull, are-we-are-we-not? relationship for a while before Wes had sat him down and refused to leave until he was forced to evaluate his feelings for her.

And despite what he'd just said about women, he didn't understand Taylor.

At all.

That scared him as much as he thought it might.

Their lives were separated by that thin veil of duty that Taylor had to uphold, as part of the active team at Turtle Cove, so they had put off any discussion about anything at all until they were sure that Master Org was gone. He had the Silver Guardian, and then after her stint as a Ranger was over, he was certain that she'd go back to the Air Force. A life without excitement wasn't worth existing for either of them, he mused.

He cast a quick glance at Wes. As usual, everything looked fine. And on the surface, maybe they were. He was helping people out by heading the Silver Guardians and with his chronomorpher, upholding justice in the way he knew how. Maybe he was happy, for a while. But Eric understood that underneath the brave front, there was a part of Wes that couldn't be mended.

Of all girls, trust Wes to fall in love with one from the future.

He let out a dry chuckle.

"As far as car analogies go? She's driving me crazy."

Wes raised his eyebrow at him, looking doubtful at the assessment when his cellphone rang and vibrated, and he nodded at the other man who lifted the phone out of his pocket and answered it. Only hearing Eric's end of the conversation, Wes had to wonder just who was on the other line.

"Who? What? NASADA sp- spaceport? What for? Why? ... Oh, okay. Where? No, that's alright. We'll be there_._"

Clicking a button and tossing the phone onto the dashboard, he started rummaging through the side pockets for a map while Wes looked at him quizzically.

"Carter Grayson from Lightspeed. There's a mission and we're required to be at the NASADA spaceport as soon as possible. It sounded really urgent," he finally said when he found the book and placed it on his lap. "NASADA's in Angel Grove. How long do you think we'll take?"

"Uh, four hours, maybe? Wait." Wes tried to stop his mind from racing to points beyond where he couldn't come back from. "What kind of mission? Is the entire team going to be there?"

_Maybe…_

"Red Rangers only. You don't see any big-ass Time Flyers or ships coming out from a portal, do you?"

Wes sighed a little, feeling a little let down. He had all but given up hope on ever seeing the women he loved again, but it was moments like those that he couldn't help but grasp on to the tiniest of glimmers. A mission was a mission, though, and if they were all going to be called for duty, then they were going to excel in it. The car picked up on its speed, the steady hum of the engine pushing Wes to go faster.

"Let's make a stop for donuts first. I'm starving."

Wes nodded, noting the rumbling of his stomach too. _We gotta do something about these 6 AM patrols_.

Neither of them noticed the Time Flyer rippling through the space-time continuum in the distance, hovering in the air before making its descent.

* * *

**Saturday, 5 ****October 2002  
NASADA Spaceport  
Angel Grove, CA  
4:47 PM**

Cole Evans was not a silent passenger.

That was the first observation Carter made. In the six hours drive from Turtle Cove to the NASADA spaceport, he had learned more about Cole than he had any other stranger. Granted, some of what he said was very interesting, like their current battle against the Orgs, but it was like the other red-clad boy had no filter whatsoever, saying whatever came to his mind and still sounding jovial about it.

He was relieved when they finally pulled in the loading bay of the spaceport.

"Wes! Eric!" Cole exclaimed as the two men climbed out of the car and he recognized their features. Bounding out of the car and towards the Silver Guardians, he grasped their hands into a grip as a greeting.

Wes spoke up first, pleased to see a familiar face besides Eric around. "Cole, it's good to see you again."

"What are you guys doing here?"

"Well, we got a call that said meet here at the NASADA spaceport," Eric informed, as he took his shades off and placed them into his breast pocket. The four-hour drive down was made bearable only with the presence of Wes, although he'd never admit that. And then of course Taylor called; demanding to know what kind of egoistical display of macho power was going on, and he'd smirked before giving his girl a brief rundown of what he knew, which wasn't much anyway.

The man who had given Wes the call interrupted his thoughts. "I see you've already met the Silver Guardians." As he gave a brief introduction for the three of them, Eric thought it would be polite not to interrupt and tell him that they already knew each other rather extensively.

"And that's the red Turbo Ranger," Carter pointed at the sleek, red sports car as an affable African-American man stepped out of the vehicle and gave them a casual salute before walking over to where they were.

"Please, just call me T.J," he smiled when Carter introduced him to the three new faces with his full name. He hadn't been called back to action ever since they defeated Psycho Pink with the Galaxy Rangers, and then they had retired their Astro Morphers for proper while settling back on Earth. It was even longer since he had been the Red Ranger, so this outing held much nostalgia for him. Speaking of the Astro Morphers, though…

"And that's Andros."

Andros gave him a silent nod in acknowledgement – they had seen each other just days prior, anyway, at Ashley's get-together; something they tried to do every few months to keep in touch with the rest of the team. It felt only right, since they had spent so much of their formative years together battling the evils of the universe.

"Glad you can join us all the way from Turtle Cove."

"You guys are all Red Rangers too?" Cole asked, and Wes struggled to keep the smile off his face. He liked Cole well enough, thought he was a good guy and a worthy friend, but sometimes he could ask the darndest questions ever. When no one answered he followed up with another question. "What's going on?"

"We're all assembled by a veteran Ranger," Andros finally spoke, looking earnestly at the four other Rangers in front of him. "A leader, for this mission."

"Leader?" Cole asked again. If all Reds were leaders and all of them were here, then it had better not mean a power struggle, he thought, but then brushed that thought aside when he justified to himself that no one in this place was as petty as that. Power struggles were a thing of the past, anyway, and if he could handle Taylor… Well.

When Andros swiveled around to the entrance of the spaceport, the other men turned their heads there, wanting to see who the assigned leader was. T.J had to chuckle to himself. If this were a movie, this would be accompanied by some swelling music. But then Tommy Oliver rounded the corner, and T.J had to laugh for real.

"Who's that?" The rookie Red Ranger inquired again, and T.J chuckled, man-handling the Wild Force Ranger next to him.

"That's Tommy, the Red Zeo Ranger. He's a legend!"

Behind him, the dawn of realization got to both Eric and Wes. Tommy's reputation definitely preceded him. T.J noted with some amusement that gone was Tommy's trademark ponytail, only to be replaced by short crop spikes. But the way he moved, the way he spoke – it was just like T.J remembered when he was still in middle school and looked up to the Power Rangers as his personal heroes.

"Thank you, guys, for coming on short notice," Tommy started, nodding at the assembly of Red Rangers in front of him. Maybe after this mission he could set up some sort of roundabout organization of the Red Rangers to provide back-up for any more missions in the future, he thought, but filed that thought at the back of his mind.

"So what's going on?" Wes was the one to speak up now. "The call sounded urgent."

"I was hoping this day would never come." Nodding at Andros, who stood beside him, he continued. "Andros has recently tracked down the remains of the evil Machine Empire."

T.J stepped forward, a look of confusion etched on his face. "But I thought the Zeo Rangers destroyed them years ago."

"We destroyed their leaders," Tommy started, expecting the questions to flow in as the information was dispatched. Pacing the length of the space between him and the other Rangers, he carried on. "But some of their generals managed to survive. They've been hiding all these years. They've finally regrouped their forces and are amassing on the moon…" His voice trailed off, as he turned to look at the other men. "Preparing to invade Earth."

"The moon?" the newest Ranger asked. "So, how are we supposed to get there to stop them?"

"In this." Andros held his hand up – he'd been waiting for this moment, to present the pride and joy of his planet's construction capabilities. When the lights came on and the space ship hummed to life, he laughed silently at how the other Rangers sans Tommy appeared startled. "I present, the Astro Megaship Mark II. Fresh off the construction yards of KO-35, the fastest spaceship in the galaxy."

"Guys," Tommy intoned, and the attention towards the space ship was momentarily diverted. "This is going to be a very dangerous mission. But I can't force you to go. This is a decision you have to make on your own."

Inwardly, he was hoping that nobody would back down from this. It might as well have been in the Ranger creed – never back down from protecting your planet, or helping your allies. When Cole stepped forward, his answer brought a small smile on Tommy's face.

"I don't know much about spaceships, or this Machine Empire. But I will go where I must to save the earth."

_Always one for theatrics_, Eric thought and almost sniggered. He wasn't going to go back to Silver Hills after that long car ride without getting involved in this though, so he glanced at Wes' direction and nodded, firmly.

"Same goes for us."

"Count me in," Carter added.

T.J looked at both his predecessor and his leader during their stint as the Space Rangers. As far as he was concerned, most, if not all of them had silently agreed to protecting the Earth – or the universe – from the moment they received their first morpher. "It's not even a question."

"Then it's settled."

"Let's do it." Tommy was pleased with the outcome, although not entirely unexpectedly. Striding forward towards the spaceship, his mind was running full of thoughts about the hastily put-together plans of attack. They would have to refine it, no doubt.

"Wait." Andros' command made all of them stop in their tracks. "Wasn't there another Red Ranger here on Earth?"

Tommy let out a sigh, feeling the weight on his shoulders.

"Two, actually. One of them is in New York and can't make it for the mission," he explained, "And he can't sustain a full morph besides his Ninjetti robes." Add that on to the fact that Rocky's back still frequently gave him grievous problems. Tommy had advised him to sit out on this mission, even though Rocky had wanted to hop on the fastest plane and join them in a heartbeat.

It was the other missing man that disappointed him.

"I was hoping the other would show up," he said, with regret lacing his very words. "But I guess he couldn't make it. We'd have to go on without him."

Not even five seconds after he spoke those words, the purring of the motorcycle and a few other vehicles sounded to their ears. Cole bounded out excitedly, wanting to see if the arrival was someone they had been expecting. Following his lead, the others ran out after him.

It wasn't the motorcycle that was leaving him perplexed. Tommy frowned and squinted in the distance, counting three cars full of people that he couldn't quite see yet from the distance, making their way behind what was inevitably Jason on his motorcycle.

He felt his heart thud as the occupants of the cars started to file out, as he recognized the faces of those he had known before.

* * *

"This is a Red mission," Tommy started, pacing in front of the others in the compound, his face crunched up in a frown as he felt increasingly annoyed at the sudden appearances of their pink counterparts.

On his left, the woman whose heart he'd broken.

On his right, the woman who'd broken _his_ heart.

He might appreciate the poetic justice in the situation eventually, but now was not the time.

If he thought it was bad enough looking at Kat and feeling bad about how horrible he was while dating her, then it was infinitely worse just looking at Kim and feeling the familiar, unwanted tug at his heart. He steadfastly ignored her gaze and instead looked at Andros for backup. "If we wanted or needed the help, I'd have arranged for more Rangers to meet up here or drafted you in our plans in the first place."

"Tracking Serpentera has been our priority for the past few years. No one else knew of our involvement in this," Andros added. When Tommy had approached him a few months after he had retired from official Ranger duties, he couldn't turn his request down.

Life had really treated him kindly ever since they returned to Earth after their victory, all things considered. It was a series of amazing things one after another through the years – he got his sister back by his side, for real this time, after years being torn apart by the cosmic forces of good and evil.

The KO-35 government had appointed him as the ambassador and liaison on Earth, allowing him to primarily reside on the foreign planet with Ashley; while she attended college and went on to create her own clothing brand, Andros had been keeping busy, setting up governmental contact between the other worlds with Earth. It wasn't hard to get settled into some sort of normalcy with her.

He hadn't been lying when he told her that his home was with her.

Two months ago he'd been stunned with the news that he was going to be a father. That was just the first inkling that life as they knew it was going to change drastically. There would be no more rushing into battle without a care for the world, because now his responsibility extended to the unborn child. His unborn child. If they were on KO-35, this notion would have been dismissed and looked down upon – their culture simply did not allow for such careful displays of affection, much like the other human races on the other planets. Earth was the only planet where prolonged touches weren't frowned upon; where over-protectiveness was a sign of love.

"I don't know if we have enough room for everyone in the spaceship," Tommy spoke up again, almost grunting in frustration. That was a lie, since the Astro Megaship was definitely big enough to accommodate more people than the crowd here. It was just that he hadn't calculated for the addition of the Pink Rangers, or even _expected_ them, and it had thrown him off the loop for a while.

It was definitely going to take time to recover from the shock.

Meanwhile, Wes eyed Jen nervously. He knew when she was going to explode and this certainly looked like one of those moments that not even he could stop. There was a buzz around the loading bay, which only grew louder and louder as the points of discussion went around.

"Alright, everybody! Listen up." Jen all but shouted, finally, and almost instantaneously, everybody went quiet. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes only for a moment, preparing her speech to get their attention.

"As some of you might know, I'm from the year 3001." More than a pair of surprised eyebrows shot up. "I got together the Pink Rangers, _not_ to upstage you Red Rangers, but to provide you with assistance. The databanks in my time have showed that most of you will die on the moon, protecting Earth."

Stunned silence from the men permeated through the air.

"Before coming here, we have worked out a few battle strategies, should you wish to hear them on the Astro Megaship," she continued, looking directly at Tommy, who she could tell was the leader of this mission, even if she hadn't read the files.

"Who is he, then?" Eric gestured to Billy, who had so far just hung around the background and not said a word at all. Billy looked over at Jen, who nodded at him.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Billy Cranston, and some of you will know me as the Blue Mighty Morphin Ranger..."

* * *

"You came back. Again."

The voice reached her ears and she didn't know how to react. The Rangers had about fifteen minutes to regroup, and in some cases call their loved ones to report in. Jen's abrupt announcement that they might die today, on the moon, had startled a few of them and it suddenly seemed important that they were to tie up loose ends before it was too late.

All that flurry of actions led up to her staring wistfully across the horizon alone; the archaic-looking buildings lending to her some comfort of memories of the year spent in 2001.

She turned around, feeling the small smile tug at her face before she could really think or worry about her reaction.

"You taught me all I need to know about thwarting destiny's plans."

Striding over, Wes closed the gap between them, hooking his arm around her waist as he looked out over the buildings too. She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat, thoughts of the farewell that would happen sooner or later after this mission running through her mind. Silently she wondered if it was all worth it for her to be possibly stripped off her duties, or worse, to face more serious penalties for messing with time.

_Of course it's worth it,_ she berated herself, _Wes would die if I hadn't come back._

She hastily pushed the thread forming in her mind that people could still die even with a much bigger army and better arsenal.

"I wonder what's up with the two over there," Wes gestured right to the other side of the bunker where Tommy and Kimberly were engaged in a serious conversation that was interspersed with Tommy's occasional pacing and Kimberly looking as exasperated as she felt.

"I think they have some old issues to iron out," Jen said, lightly, and turned her attention back to him. "Ranger romances never come easy."

"They never do, do they?" He asked quietly, rhetorically, staring into her eyes and Jen felt her pulse quicken. It had been months since her last visit to this year. Months since the two of them had met again, had slipped away quietly after the defeat of the Mut-orgs and went straight back to Wes' place, culminating in a night of feverish display of love and lust.

When love took over, there was no rationality. No rules to uphold, no lines to blur. It just was.

* * *

Kim fought the urge to squeeze her eyes shut and open them to find that this had all been a terrible nightmare-esque dream. She could feel the migraine forming and it wasn't bad enough that she could feel the waves of worry (and the occasional flutter of excitement) from everyone present in the spaceport; Tommy was currently looking at her like he wanted to either murder whoever dared come near him, or kill himself while doing so.

For a brief moment, Kim wondered if he was going to talk at all and not just glare at anything that moved within the vicinity.

"You have no grounds being here," he finally spoke up, as quietly as he could (which wasn't very soft at all); setting his jaw back as he looked pointedly at Kim. He had tried to keep his face as neutral as he could, but the slight quiver in his voice betrayed his real thoughts to her. She drew a deep breath and waited while he continued. "Getting involved with _my_ mission."

She'd expected this from him, but frowned anyway at his stubbornness. "You heard what Jen said."

"Of course I did." The cold tone he used to deliver the line should have made her flinch, but she held his glare steadily, not backing down from the imminent fight she knew was going to happen. Maybe it would be beneficial if they did fight. At least that would force him to actually communicate with her, she thought, and not shut himself up like he did years ago after he'd rescued her and Jason, amongst others.

"_You_ would die if we aren't all here."

"You know what?" He started pacing the length in front of him, now avoiding looking at her again. "You don't have the right to tell me what to do, and you certainly don't have the right to act like you care anymore."

She should have expected this too, but his words left a sting, like a hard slap across her face as those words registered in her head. The damage she caused to them, caused to their _link_; it was far much worse than she'd thought she had. She didn't need to reach into his emotions to know that he was angry, hurt and – the worst of all, she decided – disappointed.

At her.

At _himself_.

"I _do_ care – "

"The hell you do." He breathed out angrily, interrupting her.

"Believe it or not, I really do," she cut back in, trying to keep her own emotions in check before things went even more south that they already had. The waves of anger kept coming, and Kimberly knew that it was almost like Tommy thought he was entitled to throw a fit at her. As horrible as her decision to break up with him was, at the back of her mind she knew that she didn't deserved getting this extreme treatment from him without provocation.

He snorted. "I don't believe it, but fine. Whatever. I don't care if you and your Pinks are going to join us to the moon."

He turned on his heel; his mind set on assembling the Rangers and getting them on the Megaship before they missed their window of opportunity to stop the Machine Empire from acquiring Serpentera.

And then she spoke.

"I lied in that letter."

He stopped short.

It was abrupt, out of place and too random for a time like this, but Kim blurted it out anyway. The fact that the mention of the letter made the hair on the back of his neck stand was fact enough for him to know that he had never gotten over Kimberly, no matter how much he denied it.

"_What_?"

"There was no other guy. I thought I was doing the noble thing, letting you go and pursue a fair relationship with someone else by your side." She spoke in a rush, knowing that if she paused, she would lose the nerve to continue.

He seemed to consider the new information for a split second before a hard look crossed his face again, and Kim was suddenly taken aback. This look reminded her too much of when he was the Green Ranger, and she didn't like it.

Involuntarily she took a step back, as if her logical mind was telling her to be afraid.

"You're fucking unbelievable, you know that?" said Tommy, his tone dangerously low and almost derisive, for the first time since they started talking. A ghost of a smile flitted across his face, in an almost cruel manner. "You _cannot_ waltz back in my life with a reason as stupid as that and expect me to accept it at face value. I don't care what your reason was, Kimberly – _you_ broke things off. I'm just upholding my side of the deal."

Her shoulders sagged as she felt her heart sink to a new low.

"Tommy…"

"End of discussion. I've heard more than I ever wanted to. Now, if you'll excuse me – " He gestured pointedly at the other people around the spaceport. "We have some work to do."

She was about to protest, about to demand that he give her a chance to explain more, but at the back of her head she also knew that it wasn't going to do anything to help. With a nod of her head and with a newfound conviction in her voice, she spoke up, softly. "Alright. It's your lead."

But when he turned and walked to the rest of the Rangers, she allowed the tears prickling at her eyes to seize control for the moment, cascading and dropping down to the floor. Taking a deep breath and swiping her eyes with the back of her hand, she strode over to the congregation. She'd said her piece, at least the tip of the iceberg, and she hoped it was enough to allow Tommy the concentration and focus he would need on the moon.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and when she turned her head she saw Kat looking at her with concern in her eyes. She gave her a small smile and raised her other hand to grip the other woman's reassuringly.

"I'll be okay."

Kat didn't look too convinced at that, but allowed it to slide.

When it was Kim's turn to board the Astro Megaship, she took a deep breath, hoping that the training she had received as the Pink Ranger by Zordon would be enough to avert the disaster.

Hoping that they wouldn't just be living on borrowed time.

She flicked her eyes skyward, closing them momentarily before she was startled by a clear voice in her head.

_May the Power protect all of you, Rangers._


End file.
